344 PHALACKOCORACTDJE. 



1529. Plotus melanogaster. The Indian Darter or Snake-lird. 

 (Fig. 78, p. 339.) 



AnMnga melanogaster, Pennant, Indian Zool. p. 13, pi. xiii (1709). 

 Plotus melanogaster, Gmel. Syat. Nat. i, p. 68') (1788) : Blyth, Cat. 



p. 299 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. '865 ; Hume, N. fy E. p. 661 ; id. S. F. 



i. p. 289 ; Adam, ibid. p. 403 ; Butler, S. F. iv, p. 34 ; Fairbanfr, 



Birds Bom. p. 440 ; Hume, S. F. \\, p. 353 ; Gates in Hume's 

 N. fy E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 274 ; Barnes, Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. vi, 

 p. 306 ; Sinclair, op. cit. viii, p. 434. 



Banwa, Pan Diibbi, H. ; Sili, Sind; Goyar, Benr. ; KaUaki-pitta, Tel.; 

 Chakuri, Southern Gonds ; Pambuttara, Tarn. (Ceylon) ; Diya Kawa, 

 Belli Eawa, Cing. 



Coloration. Crown and neck brown, all the feathers with pale 

 edges, back of neck blackish ; chin, throat, and a line commencing 

 above Ihe gape, and continued about halfway down each side of 

 the neck, white ; a minute white streak also above the eye ; upper 

 back black, the feathers with brown edges ; lower back, rump, 

 tail-coverts, tail-feathers, primary and secondary quills, and lower 

 parts from the neek glossy black ; scapulars, wing-coverts, and 

 tertiaries black, with conspicuous silvery-white shaft-stripes ; last 

 tertiary in each wing arid two middle pairs of tail-feathers with 

 the outer web ribbed. Sexes alike. 



In immature birds the neck is pale brown, whitish beneath, 

 with the lateral stripes indistinct. The black on the lower back, 

 rump, breast, and abdomen is sooty or brownish, and the silvery 

 stripes on the upper plumage tinged with yellow. 



Bill with the upper mandible brown or blackish, the lower 

 yellowish; irides yellow; legs black (Oates). Iris pearly white, 

 with an inner and outer ring of yellow (Legye). 



Length 36; tail 9; wing 14; 'tarsus 1*7 ; bill from gape 3\8. 



Distribution. Throughout the Oriental Region in suitable 

 localities. In India, Ceylon, and Burma this bird is found 

 wherever there are extensive pieces of fresh water or large rivers 

 with a slow current. 



Habits, fyc. The Snake-bird haunts fresh water, not the sea, but 

 it may be found on tidal estuaries and creeks. It swims with 

 only its snake-like head and neck out of water, and dives very 

 rapidly, either from the surface of the water or from a perch above it. 

 Its food consists of fish, and it captures them when diving either by 

 impaling them, with one of its mandibles or securing them between 

 the two; it then emerges from the water, throws up the captured 

 fish, catches it again, and swallows it head foremost. After 

 feeding, the Darter perches on a branch or stump of a tree, and 

 sits cormorant-like with extended wings. The voice of this Darter, 



